In this connection one of the principal additions to the House bill recommended by your committee is the authorization of the construction of two airplane carriers of the most improved type and design and advantageous size, at a limit of cost, including hull, machinery, armor, and armament, of $26,000,000 each. This is the only item of new construction of ships provided for in the bill. Your committee's bill carries an appropriation of $15,000,000 for this purpose. At the same time your committee recommends that the authorization given in the act making appropriations for the naval service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1917, and for other purposes, approved August 29, 1916, for the construction of 12 torpedo-boat destroyers, for which contracts have not yet been let, be canceled. The Secretary of the Navy now has authority under that act to let contracts for the construction of these destroyers, and the cost of same, if completed, would be $2,100,000 each, making a total of $25,200,000, which reduces to that extent the authorized expenditures for the Navy.

Your committee has recognized the policy which has already been adopted of maintaining a large portion, if not all, of the fleet on the Pacific, in view of the rapidly developing interests commercially and otherwise in that section. This will necessitate provision of stations for the supply, repair, and construction of vessels upon that coast and the various auxiliaries, land defenses, etc., essential to the operation of the fleet and to the protection of the coast. Generally speaking, the facilities on the Pacific coast for these purposes at the present time are in the ratio of 1 to 4 as compared with similar facilities on the Atlantic coast. In view of these necessities, and in accordance with the unanimous report of a joint committee of the House and Senate recently made to Congress, the committee recommends and proposes amendments to the bill providing for an aviation base for heavier-than-air craft on Puget Sound on the north Pacific; a naval supply base, at Alameda, on San Francisco Bay; and a submarine base at Los Angeles Harbor, and recommends appropriations of $800,000, $1,500,000, and $1,000,000, respectively, toward their construction. Your committee also recommends $1,499,000 toward the development of a naval base on the Island of Guam, which we are advised by the technical officers of the Navy is of the greatest strategical importance. Provisions have also been recommended for the further development of the naval station at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the navy yard and station at Puget Sound, Wash., in accordance with the pressing needs of these two stations.

The appropriations in the House bill, as shown by the report of the Appropriations Committee, were based on an estimated cost of 50 cents for an enlisted man's ration. The provisions in last year's bill for this item were upon an estimated cost of 68 cents. In comparison, the House Naval Affairs Committee, in its legislative bill recently reported, fixes the cost of commutation for a ration at 68 cents, the same as provided for in the appropriations for last year. Your committee, after a careful consideration of the testimony before it as to the probable cost of a ration, during the next fiscal year, the ingredients of which are fixed by law, has fixed the cost at 60 cents, and recommends appropriations on that basis.

The action of previous Congresses has provided for a Marine Corps strength equal in number to approximately one-fifth of the authorized

S R-66-3-vol 1—19

men.

strength of the Navy. The House, having made its calculations on the basis of a strength of 100,000 enlisted men for the Navy, has reduced the appropriations for the Marine Corps to a basis of 20,000 The present authorized strength of the Marine Corps is 27,400 men. In view of its provisions for the Navy, your committee has reduced the provision for the supply of the Marine Corps from the basis of its present authorized strength of 27,400 men to 24,000 men, which is 4,000 higher than that provided for in the House bill.

The House bill carries a total appropriation of $396,001,249.23. Without giving credit for the reduction of $25,200,000 authorized for destroyers from the foregoing and some minor items recommended by your committee, the increased appropriations recommended over the amount carried in the House bill are $100,518,686.74, making a total of $496,519,935.97. The amount carried in the act of last year, for the present fiscal year, is $433.279,574, together with a deficiency for the current year of approximately $62,963,700, making a total of $496,243,274, which is the cost of the Navy for the current year as compared with $496,519,935.97 carried in this bill. Last year's act carried no appropriation for new construction.

66TH CONGRESS, 3d Session.

SENATE.

{ REPORT

No. 819.

BRIDGE ACROSS ROCK RIVER AT BELOIT, WIS.

FEBRUARY 24 (calendar day, FEBRUARY 26), 1921.-Ordered to be printed.

Mr. CALDER, from the Committee on Commerce, submitted the

following

REPORT.

[To accompany S. 5032.]

The Committee on Commerce, to whom was referred the bill (S. 5032) for the construction of a bridge across Rock River at or near Shirland Avenue, in the city of Beloit, Wis., having considered the same, report favorably thereon, and recommend that the bill do pass without amendment.

The bill has the approval of the Department of War, as will appear by the annexed communication with reference to a similar bill introduced in the House of Representatives.

WAR DEPARTMENT, February 18, 1921. Respectfully returned to the chairman Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives.

So far as the interests committed to this department are concerned, I do not know of any objection to the favorable consideration by Congress of the accompanying bill, H. R. 16091, present session, to authorize the construction of a bridge across the Rock River, in the city of Beloit, Wis.

о

NEWTON D. BAKER,
Secretary of War.

3d

No. 820.

SURVEY OF ATCHAFALAYA, RED, AND BLACK RIVERS.

FEBRUARY 24 (calendar day, FEBRUARY 26), 1921.-—Ordered to be printed.

Mr. RANSDELL, from the Committee on Commerce, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany S. 5000.]

The Committee on Commerce, to whom was referred the bill (S. 5000) directing the Mississippi River Commission to make an examination and survey of the Atchafalaya, Red, and Black Rivers, and to report plan for protection of their basins from flood waters of the Mississippi River, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with the recommendation that the bill do pass without amendment.

The following letter from the Secretary of War, dated February 12, 1921, to Senator W. L. Jones, is made a part hereof, to wit:

Hon. W. L. JONES,

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, February 12, 1921.

Chairman Committee on Commerce, United States Senate. MY DEAR SENATOR: Receipt is acknowledged of your letter, dated February 10, 1921, inclosing with request for the views of this department thereon, S. 5000, Sixtysixth Congress, third session, a bill "Directing the Mississippi River Commission to make an examination and survey of the Atchafalaya, Red, and Black Rivers, and to report plan for protection of their basins from flood waters of the Mississippi River, and in reply I have the honor to inform you that I know of no objection to the passage of the bill by Congress.

Very respectfully,

NEWTON D. Baker,
Secretary of War.

The report from the Committee on Flood Control of the House of Representatives attached to H. R. 16064, which is identical with S. 5000, dated February 15, 1921, is also made a part hereof, to wit:

[House Report No. 1331, Sixty-sixth Congress, third session.]

The Committee on Flood Control, to whom was referred H. R. 16064, a bill providing for an examination and survey of the Atchafalaya, Red, and Black Rivers, La., with a view to protecting their basins from the flood waters of the Mississippi River, having had the same under consideration, report it back to the House with the recommendation that the bill do pass.